Contents

Biography

Jesse "RuFF" Hall was born on 13 September 1985 in Homestead, Florida. He began playing StarCraft around the release of StarCraft I, receiving it as a Christmas gift from his parents. He mostly played with his father, and it quickly became one of his favorite games along with the Mechwarrior series. Later on its release, still being too young to drive, a dedicated Jesse rode his bike for an hour to the store to purchase a copy of StarCraft: Brood War.

In college, RuFF attended Fayetteville State University in North Carolina for his bachelors, and he is currently pursuing a Master's Degree in Mathematics and Teaching. Jesse enjoys mathematics as he approaches it like a strategic game, or puzzle. He tutors students at the University and does coaching for StarCraft II using those teaching skills.

Wings of Liberty

In 2010, RuFF did not play competitively but was known on the ladder

In November 2011, RuFF joined vVv Gaming and began his one-year contract with the organization. He performed well at Major LANs throughout 2011, including MLG events, and was probably the most successful player on vVv Gaming at the time. This enabled RuFF to get partnerships through twitch.tv and own3d.tv not through a team, but as an individual player who regularly hit 250+ viewers.

2012: Early in 2012, RuFF held the #1 Grandmaster position for 2 months before moving. During this time he played Starcraft II intermittently due to his life circumstances, but continued to perform at Major League Gaming events during the year.

Heart of the Swarm

In May 2013, Team oGaming made the announcement that RuFF was joining the team.[2]

Later in June 2014, RuFF performed well with a 3rd place finish at the Copa América 2014 Season 1 finals, losing 0-3 to CatZ in the semi-finals, but going on to take 3rd place over Cham with a final score of 3-1

Legacy of the Void

In January 2016, just a few months after the expansion release, RuFF placed 1st at the Inaugural PSISTORM Cup: an offline tournament organized by PSISTORM Gaming that took place in Fairfax, VA at The Cave gaming center. On his way to the finals, RuFF defeated EndofLine, CNProtoss, Crayon, and Illusion, only dropping one map to the player who he would eventually face again in the finals, CNProtoss. After fighting his way back up through the lower bracket and defeating Illusion, CNProtoss reserved his spot in the finals and another shot at taking down RuFF and winning the event. However, RuFF's aggressive style was too much for CNProtoss to handle in the end, and after a full series, game 5 ended with RuFF victorious, 3-2. During this series, RuFF showcased his trademark micro-intensive and timing-oriented style, particularly in a game on Ulrena where he went for a unique one-base marine/ghost all-in. Being 20 supply down with no expansion, RuFF appeared to be in dire straits. However, with a clutch EMP and a SCV train for buffer, RuFF's stimmed marines broke through the Protoss army in a nail-biting victory.

Controversy

On June 15, 2014, RuFF was immediately removed from IvDgaming due to his abusive comments regarding Chad Minigun Jones health.[3] IvDgaming apologized to Chad and the community for comments made by RuFF during a ladder game that was streamed. The comments in question can be found here. On June 15, 2014, RuFF also made an apology to Chad and the community for his behavior.[4] Also on June 15, 2014, TotalBiscuit announced on twitter that RuFF has been permanently banned from all Clan Wars events. This announcement can be found here.

Playstyle

RuFF finds micro play to be more fun and effective, at times, as opposed to macro play. His micro-intensive style is inspired by the South Korean pro-gamer BoxeR, who RuFF has admired since Brood War. RuFF is known for his intuitive and completely unorthodox builds on ladder and at LAN events.